Mass Effect 2 Playthroughs

For discussion's sake, how many times have you played through Mass Effect 2, what classes, what Role did you put Shepard in and what were your choices? As for a major question, I'm planning on going through Mass Effect as a whole again before 3 comes out. I've gone through once as a male Paragon Shepard as a Vanguard, a male Renegade Infiltrator, and as a female Paragon Paragon. Any ideas for unique playthrough opportunities?

Ive only done it twice, compared to the 5/6 times I went through number 1. I think it was just because of how many other games I had to keep me interested.

I too am going to give it another playthrough and buy all of the DLC before number 3 comes out.

I just played it once as a evil sonofabitch Male Soldier, and then as the same class setup, just being a goody-two-shoes. I dont like playing most games as mages/vanguards/whatever has stupid magic power type things. I dont find interest in that over just being a good fighter/shooter and taking on the enemy head on.

Laxman wrote:

Ive only done it twice, compared to the 5/6 times I went through number 1. I think it was just because of how many other games I had to keep me interested.

I too am going to give it another playthrough and buy all of the DLC before number 3 comes out.

I just played it once as a evil sonofabitch Male Soldier, and then as the same class setup, just being a goody-two-shoes. I dont like playing most games as mages/vanguards/whatever has stupid magic power type things. I dont find interest in that over just being a good fighter/shooter and taking on the enemy head on.

You see that's the one thing I have against morality systems in RPGs. Eventually you become a one dimensional boy scout or an unlikable jackass. I mean, my Vanguard Commander Shepard was no flower child, but he wasn't some student of Master Chief. I played him as a very scarred individual, no parents, no family, raised on Earth as some homeless pickpocket. Then he goes into the Alliance academy and trains, learns direction from the military code, it isn't much but it helps ground him. Then the Sole Survivor thing comes up, the tragedy at Akuze. He witnesses the closest thing to family he has slaughtered, disillusioning him, alienating him from anything close to emotional attachment, turning him into a very cold hearted tactician. Then, through the events of Mass Effect 1, feelings for Liara T'Soni arises, not just her as a person but the very symbolism the Asari represent, the possibility of peace through the ability to love one another. In a nutshell, Mass Effect 1 was my Shepard dropping his armor and learning to stop analysing things, to open up again.

I'll fast forward to Mass Effect 2 now. When Shepard died, I imagined it as him going to paradise, he can finally rest from all he's been through, then it is taken away from him via the Lazarus Project. Him coming back and fighting for Cerberus makes him feel under anesthesia at best. "This can't happen, I was dead." is his basic excuse. Then as facts keep piling up, he goes into a solemn depression, drinking a lot, stuff like that, coupled with his new association with Cerberus alienating any of his old crew that he can talk to. As a matter of fact, because of that depressed mindset, Shepard started slipping into a Renegade character, acting out and starting to see the afterlife in indifference, that if he could come back, what's the point in living? This was my first playthrough of 2 without Lair of the Shadowbroker. In the end, Grunt, Legion, and Miranda didn't make it back. After obtaining Project Overlord and Shadowbroker, I went through Mass Effect 2 again, this time, the depression dissipating when he finally reunites with Liara. There is a constant in his life again. "I have to fight to protect her, afterall, I'm here aren't I?" That anesthetic of being dead finally gets wiped away on the Collector Base, Shepard is back and he's here to stay. These new moments helped throw him into a Paragon ending where everyone survives.

That being said, I really don't know if I can invest in another Commander Shepard as much as I did my main.

Currently playing through the PS3 so first time (no spoilers). I'm playing a paragonish Male Sentinel Shepard. A spacer, he was born and raised in a military environment. And then he became a big damn War Hero. Then all the shit with Saren happened (provided by a creatively brilliant motion comic) and he dies. When he comes back, I was planing on playing him as disbelieving as well, then he utters one line during an exchange with Joker. "Trust me Shepard, it'll be better than the old days." "I hope so, I died." OK, so Shepard not only accepts his death, but can casualty joke about it? Then I looked at his life and started to mentally check-mark every impossible thing that had happened to him.

• Got Precursor knowledge shoved inside his head.
  
• Fought living machines.
  
• Fought a specter.
  
• Learned about the super race of the Reapers.
  
• SAVED a Queen of a species thought extinct.
  
• Fought an army of Krogan clones.
  
• Fought cyborg-zombies.
  
• Learned that Reapers were LIVING SHIPS WITH MIND CONTROL!
  
• GIANT SPACE BATTLE!
  
• Destroyed Soverign.
  
• Normandy got destroyed by an unknown ship.
  
• Died.
  
• Un-died.
  

After all that, I'd take the odd in stride too.

kriss wrote:

Currently playing through the PS3 so first time (no spoilers). I'm playing a paragonish Male Sentinel Shepard. A spacer, he was born and raised in a military environment. And then he became a big damn War Hero. Then all the shit with Saren happened (provided by a creatively brilliant motion comic) and he dies. When he comes back, I was planing on playing him as disbelieving as well, then he utters one line during an exchange with Joker. "Trust me Shepard, it'll be better than the old days." "I hope so, I died." OK, so Shepard not only accepts his death, but can casualty joke about it? Then I looked at his life and started to mentally check-mark every impossible thing that had happened to him.

• Got Precursor knowledge shoved inside his head.
  
• Fought living machines.
  
• Fought a specter.
  
• Learned about the super race of the Reapers.
  
• SAVED a Queen of a species thought extinct.
  
• Fought an army of Krogan clones.
  
• Fought cyborg-zombies.
  
• Learned that Reapers were LIVING SHIPS WITH MIND CONTROL!
  
• GIANT SPACE BATTLE!
  
• Destroyed Soverign.
  
• Normandy got destroyed by an unknown ship.
  
• Died.
  
• Un-died.
  

After all that, I'd take the odd in stride too.

The Krogan Clones, giant space battle, fighting a fellow Spectre, living machines (The Geth) and the husks is...well given the scientific advances and already MW oriented approach to the Mass Effect space opera universe as well as the circumstances of the past game, I can overlook those aspects. As for the shear shock of the Prothean Cypher, the Reapers, the Rachni Queen and the Collector's Space Drive-By as well as the dying and coming back....yeah I can see it being taken in stride.